Is the grudge a scary film? not really, the scariest thing in The Grudge is a tiny Japanese child. this is more scary than a tiny English child, but really, what could a little child do against a fully grown Sarah Michelle Gellar? even a supernatural one. there is also a ghostly woman in the film but the worst thing she does to anyone is make them strangely disappear. if you are scared of disappearing then you might be frightened watching this film, but otherwise the shocks diminish as the film progresses.

I have not seen the original Japanese film, but I would imagine it is very similar but somehow more chilling than this version. In fact, as the film is set in Japan and uses mostly Japanese characters, I would say the only difference is substituting Sarah Michelle into the main role. So, as usual there was no real point in re-making this.

The problem with "haunted house" films are that a house is not really a very threatening monster. Often the characters will refer to the "power of the house" or "that terrible house" but a house is not really a terrifying concept. The scariest thing you can have in a horror film is a poltergeist because they are real and can hurt you. I am scared of a poltergeist but no way am I scared of a house, Japanese or otherwise.

The Grudge suffers from the common problem of most horror films: once the initial scares has subsided there is no real story to back them up. Sooner or later they have to show the monster/ghost/alien and he is rarely as scary as what you imagined. And when the film finally limps to it's weak clichéd conclusion, nothing has really been resolved and nothing has really happened.

Mark out of Seven: 4

SEE IT AT CINEMA? don't bother
GET IT ON DVD? you could do worse
WATCH IT ON TV? oh okay then if there's nothing better on